New Delhi: For the first time since 2008, India’s badminton squad failed to win an Olympic medal as Lakshya Sen lost in three games to Malaysian seventh seed Lee Zii Jia in the men’s singles bronze playoff at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris on Monday.

World No.7 Lee took an hour and 11 minutes to beat the unseeded Indian 13-21, 21-16, 21-11. This was world No.22 Lakshya’s second loss in six matches against the Malaysian.

In badminton, Saina Nehwal was the first one to claim an Olympic medal for India when she won a women’s singles bronze in London 2012. PV Sindhu followed suit, claiming silver and bronze at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2021 respectively in the same category.

Despite being ranked and seeded higher than Lakshya, a nervous Lee committed regular errors on touch shots to give the Indian a 6-2 lead at the start. Playing with the drift, many of the Malaysian’s pushes sent the bird flying out of the court. Error on net shots too handed multiple points as the world No.22 led 11-5 at the interval.

Though Lakshya made a couple of wrong line judgement calls, he continued with his business to inch closer to winning the first game, which he did on his first attempt.

Coach U Vimal Kumar told him to not change his style and play freely while Prakash Padukone told him to “finish the contest in two games”.

Lakshya followed his coach’s advice as he picked up exactly where he left off in the opening game to take an 8-3 lead despite now playing from the disadvantageous end. In a do or die situation, Lee took advantage of the better end and started fighting back to win nine points on the trot to go 12-8 up.

The former Asian and All England champion was much more proactive in the second game and used his reflexes, agility and powerful jump smashes to make sure he stays ahead of the Indian for the rest of the game.

In the decider, despite playing from the worse end, Lee led 7-2. Lee kept extending the lead as Lakshya’s body language suggested his lack of confidence in his own shots, making many more errors. After the interval where Lee led 11-6, the Malaysian continued to exert his dominance to reach nine match points with a body smash earning him the bronze.

This was Malaysia’s second medal from badminton after Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik claimed bronze in men’s doubles.